Hyland's speed key in Moravian Academy win

The sophomore scores the decisive goal against Northwestern.

Katie Hyland wasn't going to lose a race to the ball with it tantalizingly close to the Northwestern cage on Thursday.

The Moravian Academy sophomore got to the ball first, and she slipped it past Tigers goalie Leah Hontz for what turned out to be the deciding goal in a 3-2 Lions field hockey victory.

The loose ball sat halfway between Hyland and Hontz, and the Lion knew she had to get to it first.

"I just tried to rush the goal, and I tried to run as fast as I could to beat her," said Hyland, a forward who put her team ahead by two goals with 20:06 to play. "It was 2-1, and I wasn't going to let Northwestern get any closer."

The battle between the Colonial League powers was another thriller in a series of great games between the schools.

Moravian Academy (10-1, 7-1 Colonial) jumped to a 2-0 lead before Northwestern (6-3, 6-2) pulled close. The Tigers again fell behind by two on Hyland's goal, but they made the Lions work hard over the final 10 minutes to secure the win.

"We're exhausted, and I'm sure Northwestern is exhausted," said Moravian coach Deb Bross, who watched her team score twice in the first 15:09.

Northwestern received a penalty corner one minute into the game, but the Lions controlled play for the next 17 minutes, rarely letting the Tigers even get close to goalie Sarah Scheller.

"We went into the game wanting to win because of the records Northwestern and Moravian have," said Lions senior forward Arielle Foucek. "There's a rivalry, but it's a game we needed to win, and that's the way we went at it."

Moravian's consistent first-half pressure led to a pair of goals off corners. The first came with 21:07 to play when Caity Davies took a feed from Jules Goldner to beat Hontz.

The second goal came about six minutes later with Goldner getting the goal off a Victoria Johnson assist.

One of six Moravian seniors, Johnson was on the field last season for all three meetings between the teams. Northwestern won in the regular season, Moravian countered with a thrilling league-title-game victory decided by strokes, and the Tigers took the rubber match in a District 11 Class 2A semifinal.

Johnson played Thursday as though it were a postseason matchup.

"I could not have asked for anything more from her today," Bross said. "She never gave up, and her stick was down and ready to go. She's like that every day, but today it was nonstop."

Northwestern took a timeout after falling behind 2-0, and the Tigers soon scored, getting a goal from Brianna Erney off a Taylor Sukanick pass.

"We came out slowly, hesitant and a little unsure," said Northwestern coach Cathy McCullough. "It took us a while to gain confidence to start moving to the ball, and once we scored we started moving better."

Each team nearly scored early in the second half, but Tigers defenders blocked two Foucek shots well in front of the cage, and Scheller kicked the ball away from Sukanick, who had dribbled past a couple of Lions defenders.

The Tigers got to within 3-2 with slightly more than than four minutes to play when Sarah Schoffstall's centering pass from the corner reached the stick of Sukanick, who passed the ball to Kendall Billig for the goal.

The win was important for Moravian Academy as it battles Pen Argyl for the Colonial's East Division title. Each team has one loss in league play, and Northwestern leads the North Division.